


Photography

by lesbianettes



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Bourbon - Freeform, Found Family, Gen, Hugging, Implied/Referenced Manipulation, Italian Mafia, Mafia AU, Mafia Boss Nicky, Nile is family, POV Nile Freeman, Past Nile/Dizzy, Spy Nile, it deserves its own tag bc research says it was 4000$
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:09:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26589403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lesbianettes/pseuds/lesbianettes
Summary: Nile comes home after being rescued from Turkey.*Part of my Mafia!AU on tumblr. Can be read as a stand-alone.*
Relationships: Nile Freeman & Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani, Nile Freeman & Nicky | Nicolo di Genova
Comments: 1
Kudos: 23





	Photography

She feels impossibly small in this building, and yet too big for the city it lives in. The handles are heavy, and the doors thick, but it’s stifling to be crushed into the narrow alleyways outside and impossibly crowded streets that come with headquarters in Milan. Outside the tinted windows, she can faintly see their shapes milling about. The windows are taller than her, and their glass so thick that it’s bulletproof- Nicky made sure of that when he retrofitted the building some ten years ago as he took over the family business. No sniper’s rifles will penetrate it and take him out when he watches the city move outside his office. 

“Nile!”

Yusuf sweeps her into his arms as soon as he opens the intricately carved chestnut door, close enough to smell his expensive cologne and feel his beard against her cheek. Her feet lift off the floor. She can’t resist a laugh as he spins her a little, before finally setting her down and checking her over for injuries, as if she hadn’t confirmed to him and Nicky several times on her way home that she’s alright. The few bruises on her wrists and torso have already faded mostly to nothing. 

“Nicky is still on his way back from that meeting with Quynh, but he’ll be here soon. Would you like a drink?”

She smiles and plops down in Nicky’s big chair, throwing her legs over the side. “Does he have what I like?”

“As if he could deny you a single thing, sorellina.” 

While she digs out two crystal glasses from his desk, Yusuf goes through the liquor cabinet for bourbon. He pulls out a bottle that declares itself to be aged 20 years, with a foiled label that makes her think it must have just as expensive as Nicky’s favorite wines. Still, if he chooses to spend his fortune on good booze that she likes, deliberately imported from the states, she’s not going to stop him from doing so. Her portion is decidedly larger, too. Yusuf doesn’t particularly like most liquors, but she appreciates him partaking in this with her.

They catch up while they wait. Nile tells him what she saw in Ankara before her little studio apartment was raided, and shows him pictures of things she found interesting. Street art. Stray cats. Gardens. Skyscrapers. He teases her for her blush talking about a local in her building. Then he fills her in on their meeting with Booker, of all people, to rescue her- shes says she’d rather be stuck than any of them have to work with the man- and how they intend to question him now that she’s home safe. He also shows her his sketchbook, flipping through Nicky’s likeness a million times over to get to sketches of the coast in Genoa from a trip the two of them went on about a month ago. It’s easier to stay on light topics as they wait for Nicky to come and they have to go through business. She’ll have to tell Nicky what she learned during her stay, and acknowledge that she could not find the doctor. 

She’s halfway through her drink and warm when he arrives, bodyguards flanking his shoulders until he orders them quietly to wait outside. Only when the doors have shut and the murmurs of their conversation are muted does Nicky smile brightly and greet her. She stands and allows herself to be swept into his embrace as well. He doesn’t hug with the same energy as Yusuf, but the tenderness is the same in the way he cups the back of her head and kisses her cheeks in greeting.

“It is so good to see you safe,” he says. “You had us worried!”

When they finally part, he goes to fetch a cigar from his desk. As always, he offers one to her. And she, as always, declines. He gives Yusuf the first puff. The two of them seem to be more and more alike every time she sees them; their movements carry the same grace, and their smiles the same level of loving when they meet one another’s eyes. It’s painfully obvious how much they mean. Someday, Nicky will have to realize that everyone knows Yusuf is his weak point. But until then, she will allow them their bubble. Their sweet nothings are in some flavor of Italian that Nile is not familiar with. If she thinks hard enough, she would say that it probably comes from the dialect of Nicky’s home town, but mostly, she knows they use it to keep some affections to their ears only.

“I trust you are unhurt?”

“Perfectly fine,” she assures. He worries just as Yusuf does. “But I couldn’t find any leads. I think I was onto something- one of the taxi drivers was talking about some business development in the heart of the city, but before I could investigate- well. You know what happened.”

He nods, but his lips press together in a thin line. Disappointed. She can’t help a little guilt- Nicky and Yusuf trust her to find information when others can’t, and she feels as though she has failed them. She can’t go back there, either. 

“Are you still in contact with Dizzy?” Nicky asks. 

She raises her eyebrows. “We haven’t spoken in six years. You know that.”

“I hear she does lovely intelligence work nowadays.”

Then Nile realizes what he’s getting at. He’s telling her that the woman who broke her heart, who nearly killed her, is who he intends to turn to when she has not met his standards. While she knows this is not permanent, and is well aware how much Nicky and Yusuf adore her, that does not take the sting out of this. 

“You know what her last job was?”

“I thought you were no longer speaking.”

“That doesn’t mean I don’t hear things. We run in the same circles. The last job Dizzy did was on you two. I get that I messed this up, but please, choose literally anyone else.”

Yusuf goes very still, while Nicky gestures for her to go on. 

“She was confirming the nature of your relationship, as far as I’ve heard. Merrick paid her a lot of money. I saw-” she swallows and takes a deep breath. “I saw an envelope she left for him in Izmir. Of course I intercepted it, but it was with the things that were confiscated from my apartment.”

Nicky slams his face down on the desk and leaves it there. He does that sometimes, when he’s thinking, so neither Nile nor Yusuf interrupt him. Nile finishes her bourbon and sets down the glass, waiting to hear what to do next. After a moment, he sits up properly and pulls Yusuf closer, clinging to him as if to reassure himself that nothing has happened to him. 

“Thank you,” he says finally.

She knows well what his next request will be, and every bribe that will come with it, as if he does not already do so much to spoil her. Nicky stands up and comes to her slowly, placing his warm hands on her shoulders. They take a moment to look at one another. His eyes seem so big, as close as he watches her, scanning her face as if waiting for her to speak up. 

“If I had another choice, bambola mia…”

Nile shuts her eyes and nods. “I know.”

“I ask this of you because I trust you to do it better than anyone else.”

“I know.”

“The second it overwhelms you.”

“I know.”

He kisses her forehead and stays there for a moment, letting her soak up the comfort she will need before she goes through this again. This is not unlike the way he pulled her close the first time Dizzy broke her heart. And now, he asks her to do it all over again. Of course she will, for them. But it hurts. She pulls away first, only to find Yusuf waiting with open arms as well. Nile presses her face into her shoulder and lets him hold her for a long 

**Author's Note:**

> You can see more of this au under #mafia!au on my tumblr, @nilestiddies. You can also send requests for the AU via tumblr ask box.


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